Bill Holm
Bill Holm was an American poet, essayist, memoirist, and musician.
Holm was born on a farm north of Minneota, Minnesota, the grandson of Icelandic immigrants. He attended Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota where he graduated in 1965. Later, he attended the University of Kansas.
Holm won a Fulbright and went to Iceland for a year, which stretched into longer. He continued to visit Iceland so regularly that his friends there helped him find a house in Hofsós. His last book, "The Windows of Brimnes," is about his time in Iceland.
He was Professor Emeritus of English at Southwest Minnesota State University, where he taught classes on poetry and literature until his retirement in 2007. Though Minneota was his home, Holm had traveled the world, teaching English in China, spending summers in Iceland and late winters in Arizona, and visiting Europe and Madagascar.
Holm was a frequent guest on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie "Home Companion" radio show and some of his poems were included in Keillor's "Writer's Almanac."
Holm was a McKnight Distinguished Artist in 2008, an award that honors Minnesota artists for their life work.
“We all need new ideas, images, and experiences far more than we need new stoves or cars or computers.”
“We're keeping our ears alert for any sudden thumps in undusted corners.”
“You must sit down to speak this language,It is so heavy you can't be polite or chatter in it.For once you have begun a sentence, the whole course of your life is laid out before you"-quoted in "The Geography of Bliss”
“Above me, wind does its bestto blow leaves offthe aspen tree a month too soon.No use wind. All you succeedin doing is making music, the noiseof failure growing beautiful.”